Tuff Darts!

About

Tuff Darts were a heavy presence on the same CBGB scene that gave us Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, et al, but the band somehow left a lesser footprint. “All for the Love of Rock ’n’ Roll” is a glammy, shoulda-been-a-hit monster that echoed off walls of that hallowed New York club way back in 1976, and the song’s as musically big as it could ever be on this 1978 debut. The sales and radio play just never happened. The whole album’s like that, jammed with similarly well-crafted big-rock hooks (“Rats,” “[Your Love Is Like] Nuclear Waste”), distilled power pop (“Who’s Been Sleeping Here,” “My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms”), propulsive punk (“Here Comes Trouble”), and some rude rockabilly (“Slash”). There’s a sense of real songwriting here, one that cheekily (sometimes cheesily) mixes in lyrical satire (“I’d rather slash my wrists … then have to spend the night with you”). It’s worth noting that the band had switched singers (rocker Jimmy Frenzy replaced rockabilly vaudevillian Robert Gordon) before recording this with a very young Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, Stones, Simple Minds) in the producer’s chair.

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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